Why Won't the GOP Declare War on ISIS?

PETER BEINART

MAY 28, 2015
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Last week, in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, former Clinton and Bush administration counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke pointed out something extraordinary. “Congress has been asked by the President months ago now to make a decision, to vote on the use of force against ISIS. And they’ve refused to do it. It’s incredible.”

It is incredible. On the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidates endlessly slam Obama’s lack of a strategy against ISIS. And yet given the opportunity to help craft such a strategy, and back it up with an authorization for war, Republican leaders in Congress refuse. It’s a perfect illustration of the absurdity of GOP foreign policy today.

Last December, House Speaker John Boehner declared that, “I would urge the president to submit a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) regarding our efforts to defeat and to destroy ISIL.” In that demand, Boehner was echoing likely GOP presidential candidates like Ted Cruz, who claimed that “initiating new military hostilities in a sustained basis in Iraq obligates the president to go back to Congress and to make the case to seek congressional authorization” and Rand Paul, who said, “I believe the President must come to Congress to begin a war and that Congress has a duty to act. Right now, this war is illegal until Congress acts pursuant to the Constitution and authorizes it.”

In Praise of Uncertainty

Carlos Alberto Montaner

May 28, 2015

http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2015/05/in_praise_of_uncertainty_111223.html

It is very painful to watch the images coming from Iraq and Syria. It has often been said that our history began in the Sumerian city of Ur, about 5,000 years Before Christ. There is a continuous cultural line that runs from that remote Mesopotamian city to New York, Paris, or Montevideo. And thus the new jihad unleashed by the Islamic State affects all of us. The caliphate being forged in blood and fire, in the regions joining Iraq to Syria, not only revels in the slaughter of Shiites, Christians, and Yazidis, but also in the destruction of what remains of a splendid pagan past.

Many of these predatory Islamists are young men raised in the West. Why do they do it?

ISIS Wins No Matter What Happens Next

Michael Weiss

05.28.15

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/28/isis-wins-no-matter-what-happens-next.html

The latest planned attack on the terror army could be playing right into their hands.

The Obama administration is being slammed from all sides for its failing strategy against ISIS—and rightly so. But amid all the scorn, one question has yet to be asked about the resiliency of the terror army, which actually goes to the heart of its decade-old war doctrine. Namely: Does ISIS actually win even when it loses?

This isn’t an academic issue. America’s allies in the ISIS war are gearing up for a major counteroffensive against the extremist group. That assault that could very well play right into ISIS’s hands.

Having superimposed its self-styled “caliphate” over a good third of Iraq’s territory, in control of two provincial capitals, ISIS is today in the strongest position it has ever been for fomenting the kind of sectarian conflagration its founding father, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, envisioned as far back as 2004.

The Pitfalls of a Whack-a-Mole Strategy Against ISIS

BY GORDON ADAMS, RICHARD SOKOLSKY

MAY 28, 2015

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Why deploying an American-led global army against the Islamic State would be a really bad idea.

The Islamic State has taken control of Ramadi in Iraq, and Islamic State franchises are popping up all over the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Pressure is growing for the United States to “do something” as quickly as possible.

Some of America’s friends and partners are beseeching the United States to step in with greater force. Some of the “usual suspects” at home, like Sen. Lindsey Graham, have joined the cry, urging the administration to put U.S. combat boots on the ground and even go global and go big in a military campaign against the Islamic State. Pundits and administration critics argue that the current policies under U.S. President Barack Obama are failing and that the strategy of using “other people’s armies” carries grave risks for U.S. national security.

For Generals Fighting the Islamic State, a Sense of Déjà Vu

BY SEÁN D. NAYLOR

MAY 28, 2015

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/28/for-generals-fighting-the-islamic-state-a-sense-of-deja-vu/

The military is still facing the same problems in Iraq it has paid billions of dollars to fix over the past decade.

Too few drones. No technology for preventing deadly roadside IEDs from detonating. No strategy for countering the message of violent jihad being spread by Islamist fighters.

Top U.S. special operations commanders have been complaining about those perceived shortfalls since shortly after American troops swept into Iraq in 2003. The Pentagon has dutifully opened its wallet wide and spent tens of billions of dollars to fix them. To hear today’s military leaders speak, however, you’d think that nothing had really changed.

To destroy ISIS in Iraq, start with the desired end state and work backwards

BY THOMAS E. RICKS

MAY 26, 2015

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Gideon Rose’s 2010 book, How Wars End, suggests that when confronting a strategic challenge, it can be helpful to start with the desired political end state and then think backwards to determine the steps needed to get there. This desired end state should not be a starry-eyed vision of perfection, but instead should be a pragmatic notion of what is both possible and acceptable. In the case of Iraq, this realistic U.S. end state should focus on stability. It would entail an Iraq which is mostly free from Islamic extremists, is not a puppet of Iran, and is an adequate U.S. partner with some marginally acceptable form of democracy. If these minimal conditions were sustained, the U.S. should not have to launch new wars in Iraq in the future because this status quo would be acceptable.

Global cyber-strategy needed to confront 'IS' and other terror groups

"Islamic State" is not only a threat on the battlefield, but also on the Internet, writes Kyle Matthews from the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies.

The infamous "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS or IS) has proven its success both on the battlefield, with its recent capture of the city of Ramadi in Iraq, and in cyberspace, due to its mastery of social media and modern digital technology.

Not only has the group made public the horrific footage of the mass executions carried out by its jihadist fighters, it has turned the Internet into a “digital battleground” where it posts propaganda to indoctrinate individuals, promote hatred, recruit new foot soldiers, fundraise and plan mass casualty attacks.

How Disbanding the Iraqi Army Fueled ISIS

Mark Thompson @MarkThompson_DC

May 28, 2015

http://time.com/3900753/isis-iraq-syria-army-united-states-military/ 

The U.S. decision 12 years ago has provided the enemy with some of its best commanders and fighters 

After nearly a year of air strikes led by the U.S. and ground attacks by the U.S.-trained Iraqi army, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is proving to be a far more cagey and cunning foe than the Pentagon ever expected. A big reason for its success is the George W. Bush Administration’s decision to disband the Iraqi army shortly after the 2003 invasion—without the knowledge or consent of either the Pentagon or President. 

It’s a jarring reminder of how a key decision made long ago is complicating U.S. efforts to fight ISIS and restore some semblance of stability to Iraq. Instead of giving Iraq a fresh start with a new army, it helped create a vacuum that ISIS has filled. Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine general and chief of U.S. Central Command from 1997 to 2000, said keeping the Iraqi army intact was always part of U.S. strategy. “The plan was that the army would be the foundation of rebuilding the Iraqi military,” he says. “Many of the Sunnis who were chased out ended up on the other side and are probably ISIS fighters and leaders now.” One expert estimates that more than 25 of ISIS’s top 40 leaders once served in the Iraqi military. 

Guest Article: Why we lose so many wars, and how we can win.

BY MARTIN VAN CREVELD

MAY 28, 2015

As the western nations begin a new round of interventions against insurgencies in the Middle East, let’s look at the record of such conflicts since WWII. They teach a simple lesson that if widely recognized could change our future. But the leaders of our national defense institutions do not want to see it, so we probably will not either. Failure to learn is among the most expensive of weaknesses, one which can offset even the power of even great nations.

The local fighter is therefore often an accidental guerrilla — fighting us because we are in his space, not because he wishes to invade ours. He follows folk-ways of tribal warfare that are mediated by traditional cultural norms, values, and perceptual lenses; he is engaged (from his point of view) in “resistance” rather than “insurgency” and fights principally to be left alone.

— David Kilcullen in The Accidental Guerrilla (2011).

Putin's FIFA Remarks: Russia Gives America a 'Red Card'

Nikolas K. Gvosdev

May 29, 2015

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The deeper meaning behind Russian president Vladimir Putin's FIFA comments. 

Vladimir Putin's full-throated defense of embattled Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) president Sepp Blatter, who has seen the organization's top executives arrested in Switzerland on the basis of U.S. anti-corruption warrants issued in the Southern District of New York, should come as no surprise. Throughout his tenure in office, Putin has made it a point to stand by friends of the Kremlin no matter the charges and to demonstrate that the Russian state will do what it can to defend and support them, particularly when they face trouble in the West.

Russia's Eyes Massive Nuclear Submarine Deal with India

Zachary Keck

May 29, 2015

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Russia may help India build nuclear submarines and stealth warships, according to Indian media reports.

Last week India’s Economic Times reported that the Indian conglomerate Reliance Infrastructure—which owns stakes in numerous Indian defense companies—is seeking Russian assistance for programs to locally produce nuclear submarines and other stealth warships.

According to the report, top Reliance executives were in Moscow last week to meet with Russian defense officials about finding a partner for a joint venture between a Russian defense company and Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering, India’s largest defense shipyard, which Reliance has an 18 percent stake in. Specifically, Reliance is looking for a Russian partner with the “requisite technology expertise for manufacturing warships in India.”

Here Comes Rick Santorum: Does He Have What It Takes to Be President?

James M. Lindsay

May 29, 2015

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Can the second be first? Rick Santorum certainly hopes so. In 2012, the former Pennsylvania senator finished second to the eventual GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Now Santorum hopes to improve on that surprise performance. Santorum recently announced he was entering the 2016 presidential campaign, afterconfirming his candidacy to George Stephanopoulos earlier in the day.

I profiled Santorum back in 2011 when he first ran for president. His worldview hasn’t changed since then. He is a social conservative and foreign policy hawk. Indeed, he stressed foreign policy topics back in 2012 when the smart money said GOP candidates should focus on jobs and deficits.

Russia's Mighty T-14 Armata Tank: Should America Be Worried?

Robert Farley

May 30, 2015

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Russia's new Armata Tank—actually part of a family of armored vehicles that share a common chassis—has attracted tremendous attention. Can it match all the hype? 

Russia has a new tank… maybe. Several National Interest articles have followedthe development of the Armata family of armored vehicles, a system that breaks with long-term Russian tradition in construction, design, and (probably) means of employment.

How much should the United States worry about the Armata, and where should that concern lie? The impressive nature of the tank notwithstanding, the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps are unlikely to encounter it directly on the battlefield. The bigger questions involve how the Armata might change the global market for armored vehicles, and how the tank might become part of the arsenals of Russian proxies.

What it can do

The Armata represents a family of armored vehicles that share a common chassis. As with the Israeli Merkava, this maximizes the flexibility of the platform, hopefully saving production and maintenance costs. The influence of the Merkava, which began its production life as a main battle tank but has spawned a series of spinoffs, is key to understanding what Russia is looking for in its new vehicle.

NATO Needs a Nuclear Strategy Update

ELBRIDGE COL

May 27, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-needs-a-nuclear-strategy-update-1432751143

Moscow is ready to use its arsenal to deter pushback against its aggressions. NATO needs a plan for how to stare down such threats.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization ministers meeting in Antalya, Turkey earlier this month heard from the alliance’s supreme military commander that Russia is using threatening rhetoric about nuclear weapons to intimidate the West. It’s designed “to give pause to NATO’s decision making,” said Gen. Philip Breedlove. This has included not only general references to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, the general pointed out, but also Moscow referring specifically to “the possibility of moving nukes into certain areas or employing nukes if something had not gone correctly in Crimea.”

Can Russia Even Out the Playing Field With China?

Samuel Bendett

May 28, 2015

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Russia and China recently have signed and executed a number of large-scale economic and military agreements - enough to make Russia's own so-called pivot to Asia, and toward the dynamic Chinese economy, seem a success. Multi-billion dollar oil-and-gas agreements and recently concluded Sino-Russian naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea point to strengthening relations between these major Eurasian powers. For Russia, the growing relationship presents many challenges. Foremost among these for the Kremlin is to ensure that such a relationship is balanced, and does not make of Moscow a junior partner to Beijing just as Russia seeks to re-establish its global prominence.

U.S. Navy's Big Mistake -- Building Tons of Supercarriers

By David Wise

May 28, 2015

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“History,” it has been written, “does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Today it’s rhyming with Gen. Billy Mitchell. In the 1920s, Mitchell challenged conventional thinking by advocating air power at sea in the face of a naval establishment dominated by battleship proponents.

The hubris of the “battleship Navy” was such that just nine days before Pearl Harbor, the official program for the 1941 Army-Navy game displayed a full page photograph of the battleship USS Arizona with language virtually extolling its invincibility.

Of course, the reason that no one had yet sunk a battleship from the air — in combat — was that no one had yet tried.

US Navy Buys Old Helicopters from Japan for Spare Parts

by Mike Hixenbaugh

May 28, 2015

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The Navy has purchased two decommissioned Japanese military helicopters and additional used parts, completing an international deal in the works for more than five years. The U.S. plans to harvest the aircraft for parts to maintain its aging fleet of MH-53E Sea Dragons.

A Navy spokeswoman couldn't place a value on the acquisition, but it appears the service bought the used helicopters and parts at a steep discount, paying about $67,000. One Sea Dragon is worth about $60 million new.

"This is the result of a lot of hard work and cooperation on both sides," said Kelly Burdick, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Systems Command, which is responsible for developing, equipping and maintaining Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.

The Navy's Sea Dragon program -- initially set for retirement a decade ago -- has long been hampered by a shortage of replacement parts, a problem that came to a head earlier this year after the service ordered fleet-wide inspections and repairs to fix potentially dangerous fuel lines and wiring bundles.

Reuters reporter: Russia is amassing unmarked tanks and soldiers on its border with Ukraine

MARIA TSVETKOVA

MAY 28, 2015

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KHUTOR CHKALOVA, Russia (Reuters) - Russia's army is massing troops and hundreds of pieces of weaponry including mobile rocket launchers, tanks and artillery at a makeshift base near the border with Ukraine, a Reuters reporter saw this week.

Many of the vehicles have number plates and identifying marks removed while many of the servicemen had taken insignia off their fatigues. As such, they match the appearance of some of the forces spotted in eastern Ukraine, which Kiev and its Western allies allege are covert Russian detachments.

The scene at the base on the Kuzminsky firing range, around 50 km (30 miles) from the border, offers some of the clearest evidence to date of what appeared to be a concerted Russian military build-up in the area.

Hacked Emails of Russian Official Show Covert Russian Military Acquisition of Sensitive Technology

Sharon Weinberger

May 28, 2015

Hacked Emails Reveal Russian Plans to Obtain Sensitive Western Tech

In April 2014, Viktor Tarasov wrote to the head of Ruselectronics, a Russian state-owned holding company, about a critical shortage of military equipment. The Russian military lacked thermal imaging systems — devices commonly used to detect people and vehicles — and Tarasov believed that technology might be needed soon because of the “increasingly complex situation in the southeast of Ukraine and the possible participation of Russian forces” to stabilize the region.

Tarasov, in charge of Ruselectronics’ optical tech subsidiary, was hoping that the head of Ruselectronics would write to the minister of defense for armaments to advance his company 150 million rubles, then about $4 million, to buy 500 microbolometer arrays, a critical component of thermal imaging devices. The money, Tarasov wrote, would allow the company to buy the equipment under a current contract from a French company without the need for signing a new “end-use certificate,” which requires the buyer to disclose the final recipient.

The Fine Line Where Secrecy Trumps Transparency: The British Case

Alan Cowell

May 29, 2015

British Inquiries Shed Light, Until They Don’t

LONDON — What do we really know about events that mold the national narrative? In this era of digital information harvested by whistle-blowers, who draws the line in the contest between security and openness? Is it, indeed, surprising that some might suspect the maneuvers of a hidden cabal of power and privilege narrowing the limits of disclosure?

The questions intrude insistently in this country with its reflexive reverence for official secrecy, despite — or perhaps because of — years of investigations and inquiries that have sometimes offered illumination and sometimes achieved the opposite.

Most notable at the moment is the panel investigating the Iraq war in 2003, named for its head, Sir John Chilcot, a retired civil servant. Although it began its work in 2009, it has yet to produce a final report on its interviews with 129 witnesses and its scrutiny of 150,000 government documents including confidential exchanges between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush.

The Shadow NSA: The Growing Privatization of Cyber Espionage in the U.S.

Tim Shorrock

How Private Contractors Have Created a Shadow NSA 

About a year ago, I wangled a media invitation to a “leadership dinner” in northern 
Virginia sponsored by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. INSA is a powerful but 
little-known coalition established in 2005 by companies working for the National Security Agency. In recent years, it has become the premier organization for the men and women who run the massive cyberintelligence-industrial complex that encircles Washington, DC.

The keynote speaker was Matthew Olsen, who was then the director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). He used his talk to bolster the morale of his colleagues, which had recently been stung by the public backlash against the NSA’s massive surveillance programs, the extent of which was still com-ing to light in the steady release of Edward Snowden’s huge trove of documents. “NSA is a national treasure,” Olsen declared. “Our national security depends on NSA’s continued capacity to collect this kind of information.” There was loud, sustained applause.

Reuters reporter: Russia is amassing unmarked tanks and soldiers on its border with Ukraine

MARIA TSVETKOVA

MAY 28, 2015

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Thomson ReutersTanks are seen on a freight train shortly after its arrival at a railway station in the Russian southern town of Matveev Kurgan

KHUTOR CHKALOVA, Russia (Reuters) - Russia's army is massing troops and hundreds of pieces of weaponry including mobile rocket launchers, tanks and artillery at a makeshift base near the border with Ukraine, a Reuters reporter saw this week.

Many of the vehicles have number plates and identifying marks removed while many of the servicemen had taken insignia off their fatigues. As such, they match the appearance of some of the forces spotted in eastern Ukraine, which Kiev and its Western allies allege are covert Russian detachments.

The scene at the base on the Kuzminsky firing range, around 50 km (30 miles) from the border, offers some of the clearest evidence to date of what appeared to be a concerted Russian military build-up in the area.

The U.S. Fed: Stuck in Neutral?

Samuel Rines

May 30, 2015

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-us-fed-stuck-neutral-13000

"Interest rates do not live in a vacuum, and the United States does not have the potential growth it once did."

There is always an ideal. For the Fed, the ideal is the neutral (or natural or equilibrium) rate of interest. The neutral interest rate can be defined as the Fed Funds rate consistent with an economy operating at its “potential.” And this—somewhat odd—economic guide may become an increasingly important data point for those watching the Fed’s policies closely.

The data shows that the policy neutral rate has been declining since the 1960s (with a slight uptick during the booming 1990s). A more accurate tagline might be “Still Stuck in Neutral.” One major bond house recently called this “The New Neutral.” But a declining neutral rate is anything but new.

PowerPoint should be banned. This PowerPoint presentation explains why.

By Katrin Park 
May 26 
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Katrin Park is a former UN staffer currently based in Seoul.

Invented in 1987, the Microsoft presentation software PowerPoint isreportedly installed on more than 1 billion computers around the world. It is estimated that more than 30 million PowerPoint presentations are given every day. But as PowerPoint conquered the world, critics have piled on. And justifiably so. Its slides are oversimplified, and bullet points omit the complexities of nearly any issue. The slides are designed to skip the learning process, which — when it works — involves dialogue, eye-to-eye contact and discussions. Of course PowerPoint has merits — it can help businesses with their sales pitches or let teachers introduce technology into the classroom. But instead of being used as a means for a dynamic engagement, it has become a poor substitute for longer, well-thought-out briefings and technical reports. It has become a crutch.

How Special Operators Are Taking Artificial Intelligence To War

BY PATRICK TUCKER

MAY 28, 2015

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Data and machine learning will steer missions and predict uprisings before they start.

The U.S. fight against the Islamic State and other extremist threats is increasingly in the hands of elite special operations units who will succeed or fail by their ability to collect, process, and exploit data at the speed of crisis. At the command level, that means reducing the number of analysts required to get data to make sense. On the ground, it means sending much more actionable data to the tip of the spear, and doing so faster and more cheaply. Even the best tech minds in commercial sector don’t produce the sort of product that special operators need, according to special operations intelligence experts.

Patrick Tucker is technology editor for Defense One. He’s also the author of The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move? (Current, 2014). Previously, Tucker was deputy editor for The Futurist for nine years. Tucker has written about emerging technology in Slate, The ...Full Bio

Germans seek Indian IT cyber fighters

May 28, 2015

http://www.asianage.com/business/germans-seek-indian-it-cyber-fighters-353

German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen said the highlight of her discussions with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was cyber terrorism.

The minister who was speaking in Mumbai at a meeting organised by Gateway House, a think tank, said India’s talent pool in the IT sector has made the task of fighting cyber terrorism more realisable.

She also explained, on a suggestion of Satrupt Mishra, chief executive, Carbon Black and director, HR, Aditya Birla group that there should be cooperation between academia and small business, that in Germany in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector , the workers go for vocational training during a week, so that they are skilled for the job they are doing. It is man-driven education, she said adding “this is what small and medium enterprises need for the future.

The Kremlin’s Secret Army of Online Trolls Operate From Building St. Petersburg

May 29, 2015

Russia Steps Up Propaganda Push With Online ‘Kremlin Trolls’

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Deep inside a four-story marble building in St. Petersburg, hundreds of workers tap away at computers on the front lines of an information war, say those who have been inside. Known as “Kremlin trolls,” the men and women work 12-hour shifts around the clock, flooding the Internet with propaganda aimed at stamping President Vladimir Putin’s world vision on Russia, and the world.

The Kremlin has always dabbled in propaganda, but in the past year its troll campaign has gone into overdrive, adding hundreds of online operatives to help counter Western pressure over its role in the pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The program is drawing Serbia, which harbors EU dreams, back toward the Russian orbit, and is targeting Germany, the United States and other Western powers. The operation has worried the European Union enough to prompt it to draw up a blueprint for fighting Russia’s disinformation campaign, although details have not yet been released.

U.N. REPORT ASSERTS ENCRYPTION AS A HUMAN RIGHT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

BY DAN FROOMKIN

Encryption is not the refuge of scoundrels, as Obama administration law-enforcement officials loudly proclaim – it is an essential tool needed to protect the right of freedom of opinion and expression in the digital age, anew United Nations report concludes.

Encryption that makes a communication unintelligible to anyone but the intended recipient creates “a zone of privacy to protect opinion and belief,” says the report from David Kaye, who as Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression is essentially the U.N.’s free speech watchdog.

The significance of encryption extends well beyond political speech, Kaye writes. “The ability to search the web, develop ideas and communicate securely may be the only way in which many can explore basic aspects of identity, such as one’s gender, religion, ethnicity, national origin or sexuality.”

Encryption, like anonymity, is essential to artists, journalists, whistleblowers, and many other classes of people, the report says.

Why does the US have 800 military bases around the world?

Johnny Harris

May 18, 2015

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/18/8600659/military-bases-united-states

The US has around 800 military bases in other countries, which costs an estimated $100 billion annually, a number that could be much higher depending on whether you count the bases still open in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is according to American University professor David Vine in his forthcoming book Base Nation, in which he seeks to quantify the financial, environmental, and human costs of keeping these bases open.

Bases around the world.

The word "base" is a broad term that captures all sorts of military posts, stations, camps, forts, etc. around the globe. The Pentagon specifics that a "base site" is any geographic location that is "owned by or leased to, or otherwise possessed" by the military.

Most of these bases cropped up after World War II when the US took position as the global leader and peacekeeper in and around Japan and Germany. The Korean and Cold Wars sped up the expansion of US military infrastructure to other countries. Containing Soviet communism led the US to set up posts all over the globe to ensure a geopolitical foothold in places that were vulnerable to Soviet influence — which basically meant everywhere.

OROP – diminutive in deeper malaise

ByLt Gen Prakash Katoch

29 May , 2015

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/orop-diminutive-in-deeper-malaise/0/

There is plenty hoopla about OROP and with reason – some angered, some amused, some complacent. Articles have appeared that veterans are disappointed and are losing faith in the government. Some write that since Uttrakhand had large number of military veterans, they chose to vote for opposition parties in assembly elections and that trend will likely continue. Reporters and cross section of the public ask what has happened that announcements about OROP by two successive governments have yielded nothing so far. So what exactly is happening?

…if an IAS officer becomes Joint Secretary in 17 years of service the officers of Organised Group A Service will start drawing the salary of Joint Secretary in maximum of 19 years of service and similarly that of Additional Secretary / Lt Gen in 30 and 32 years respectively

Why Brits disliked Netaji and made a Mahatma out of Gandhi

Source Link

27-05-2015

This article has been co-authored by Saswati Sarkar, Shanmukh, Dikgaj, Chandra Mauli Singh.

Section A: Introduction

There has been, for a while, a pervasive disillusionment in India about compromise of core values in politics in India, which has led to mass movements from time to time, the latest being in 2011 initiated by activist Anna Hazare. The degeneration spans:

1) unhealthy nexus between corporates and politics leading to policy choices and administrative decisions based on considerations other than national interests as also influence of money power in electioneering,

2) subversion of national interests through foreign interference,

3) subjugation of ideals and ideologies to personality cults which is manifested in and in turn fed by subversion of internal democracy in political parties, and

4) divisive politics.

The severity of public disenchantment on 1) can be assessed from the fact that Arvind Kejriwal won assembly polls in Delhi within a couple of years of his formal entry in politics by campaigning against the same. It is susceptibility to foreign interference that is believed to have induced major political parties in India to support emergency (CPI supported Indira Gandhi's declaration of emergency allegedly at the beck and call of Soviet Russia; it is not known if and what major concessions Russia extracted from India in return) and foreign aggression (CPI(M) refused to condemn Chinese invasion of India in 1962). Ironically, the Left parties have been the first to contend that Indian politics is subservient to foreign imperialism and interests. Recently, a member from Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's own party, the JD(U), alleged that Kumar received funds from Pakistan to oppose then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi [67].

Why Indians must resist the Modi government's planned surveillance system

Saikat Datta

Source Link

By allowing the government to directly access phone and internet communications without the restriction of a privacy law, the system could put citizen rights in jeopardy.

Milind Deora, a former minister in the United Progressive Alliance government, has cautioned against the possible misuse of a new and more sophisticated system of surveillance conceptualised by his government and now reportedly put on the fast track by the Narendra Modi government. Called the Central Monitoring System, it allows government agencies to bypass phone and internet service providers to directly intercept communications. In an interview to Scroll.in, Deora said that he realised the system could lead to "technically lawful but malicious" interception in the absence of a privacy law.

Currently, in India, the sanction of the union home secretary is required before an agency can tap phones or intercept communications. According to an official reply under a query under the Right to Information Act, the home secretary clears nearly 300 phone tap applications every day. This information led to a seminal study by the New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre which found there was very little transparency about what the government is doing with so much of data that it collects through these 100,000 phone taps every year.

The Indian Century? Education, entrepreneurialism, and democratic institutions bode well for the country’s future—but profound challenges remain.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_2_india.html

Students prepping for admissions exams to the Indian Institutes of Technology, the country’s most prestigious educational institution

I attended a dinner in Paris full of tech experts, scientists, and investors, all of whom were gloomy about the West. Progress isn’t progressing, they complained. There are too many impediments to innovation. What on earth has gone wrong with our universities? We once put a man on the moon, and now we can’t even figure out a humane way to fly from Silicon Valley to Paris. Everything’s overregulated. The Scientific Revolution is over; the Industrial Revolution has reached the end of the line. No one understands what made America great anymore. We haven’t conquered death, but taxes have conquered us. We’re doomed.

Enter Nick Booker-Soni, about 30, affable and rumpled, standing at the open window to smoke. I said that I lived in Istanbul. “Really? We visited last year.” The other half of the “we” was his wife, Meetu. “Truth is, we were a bit disappointed.” I expected him to mention the usual disappointments: traffic, perhaps, or tear gas. “Just not that much history there,” he said.

Battlefield Nukes Won't Save Pakistan

Saira Bano

May 29, 2015

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/battlefield-nukes-wont-save-pakistan-12990?page=show

History suggests that Pakistan would be better served by focusing on economic development.

Nuclear relations in South Asia cannot be fully analyzed without taking into account the China factor. Strategic relations between China, India, and Pakistan constitute a unique nuclear triangle in which the parties share a history of conflicts and border disputes. Two earlier nuclear triangles — the U.S.-Europe-USSR and the U.S.-USSR-China—provide a framework to analyze how these nuclear triangles are different from each other, as well as what similarities exist.

One commonality is the fear that a small nuclear power is the most likely state to initiate a war. It is, therefore, important to pay attention to the nuclear postures of small states in a triangle. In the first nuclear triangle, France developed battlefield nuclear weapons. China, in the second triangle, maintained an “assured retaliation” posture. Pakistan, like France, has adopted an offensive nuclear posture with tactical nuclear weapons.

Sleeping with the enemy

By Vikram Sood

28-May-2015

http://www.mid-day.com/articles/sleeping-with-the-enemy/16245171

It has been evident that Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is moving closer to Pakistan. Yet the announcement of an MOU between the two countries’ intelligence agencies was a surprise to many, including his own deputy, Dr Abdullah Abdullah who learnt of this from former President Hamid Karzai. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) signed a memorandum of understanding (May 18) to “jointly fight terrorism” and “enemy espionage agencies”. The agreement would allow ISI to probe terrorist suspects in Afghan detention.

Afghan firefighters respond to a Taliban attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. An all-night siege in an upscale neighbourhood of Afghanistan’s capital ended in the early hours yesterday morning.